A Dallas ringman got slapped with 84 months behind bars in San Antonio federal court for his role in a human smuggling operation, trucking undocumented immigrants through Texas. Sedrick Zelitis Smith, 47, the guy with the foot on the gas, worked for a smuggling outfit shifting migrants from Mexico, playing middleman between the big bosses and the drivers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
Smith, not one to shy away from getting his hands dirty, managed to nab tractor trailers needed for the migrant moves, and even sat behind the wheel himself, shuffling migrants from Laredo to San Antonio, exploiting his commercial driver’s license. Pegged by Homeland Security Investigations since May 2021, they figured the group had smuggled north of 900 migrants in just 19 separate incidents, cramming them into trailers like sardines.
But Smith wasn't riding solo. Nine other accomplices are in the legal crosshairs, with court dates hanging over their heads. Bryan Adamson, Ronnie Joe Branch, Eliseo Loredo, Rodney Edward Shavers, Mark Algie Holliday, Francisco Arredondo-Colmenero, and Debbie Marie Gonzales are all on the bench waiting for playtime. Meanwhile, Norman Lee Walker Jr. ended up in cuffs May 21.
It's lights out for Fredi Zagala-Servin too, who got a 97-month vacation in April for the same crime of Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens, the feds aiming to put the kibosh on human smuggling, as U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza laid it on the line: “It is absolutely critical that we send a message to criminals throughout all levels of these organizations that their crimes at the expense of vulnerable individuals are serious, they are dangerous, and we are here to readily prosecute.” The crackdown is part of the Joint Task Force Alpha initiative, punching up the Justice Department’s muscle to flatten out the human smuggling pandemic.
“HSI is committed to aggressively target human smugglers and smuggling organizations who continually victimize people for profit,” stated Craig Larrabee, Special Agent in Charge for HSI San Antonio. Sent back to square one, Smith now faces the tune of hard time, with Homeland Security Investigations and JTFA flexing their investigative might to curb the smuggling tide, a combined effort leading to a crackdown yielding over 295 arrests and more than 230 U.S. convictions to date. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Brown took point on the prosecution, gunning for justice in combat boots.
